Members of the American Front – a well-armed, militia-style white supremacist group in Florida – were planning acts of violence and preparing for “an inevitable race war” when 11 of them were arrested last week, court documents say.

The documents, the outgrowth of a two-year investigation, also say American Front members received paramilitary training at a fortified compound near St. Cloud, Fla., from one of its Missouri members who is a U.S. military reservist. He was not among those arrested.

The American Front compound is on 10 acres in Florida’s Osceola County and is owned by group leader Marcus Faella, 39, and his wife, Patricia, 36, who were among those arrested on state charges of conducting illegal paramilitary training, attempting to shoot into an occupied dwelling, and prejudice while committing a crime. ( continue to full post… )

The FBI in 2010 disrupted what its agents now believe was a terrorist plot that involved killing President Obama, according to testimony and court documents filed in U.S. District Court in Spokane, Wash.

The revelation came at the two-day sentencing hearing for white supremacist Wayde Lynn Kurt, the accused mastermind of an alleged plot that was foiled with his arrest on federal firearms and forgery charges.

At the time of his arrest on Aug. 30, 2010, Kurt was associated with a gang of violent neo-Nazi skinheads and white supremacist Odinists who proudly talked of carrying out “coon-hunting” racial attacks in the Pacific Northwest. Their conversations were captured on a videotape that was later turned over to the FBI and shown in court during Kurt’s sentencing hearing. ( continue to full post… )

Some residents in a Mobile, Ala. neighborhood found white supremacist newspapers on their front lawns Thursday morning, five days after the racially charged beating of a white man by a group of about 20 African Americans.

According to witnesses, the attack on Matthew Owens, 40, came after Owens confronted and displayed knives to children who had chased a loose basketball into his yard. But witnesses also said one of the attackers said, “Now that’s justice for Trayvon,” a reference to Trayvon Martin, the unarmed teen who was killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer in Florida. ( continue to full post… )

A Houston jury has convicted three men who sported white supremacist tattoos on federal hate crime charges for carrying out a racially motivated assault on a 29-year-old black man they cornered at a bus stop.

Charles Cannon, 26, Michael McLaughlin, 41, and Brian Kerstetter, 32, face up to 10 years in prison when they are sentenced in July by U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Hoyt of the Southern District of Texas. Prosecutors dismissed charges against a fourth man, Joseph Staggs, who testified against the others.

The convictions were the first in Houston under the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, enacted in 2009. ( continue to full post… )

Tom Metzger — a wily, iconic racist ideologue who has for years espoused “lone-wolf” terrorism — could soon find himself facing criminal charges filed by the federal government he’s excoriated for decades.

Federal investigators, fresh off a related mail-bombing conviction in Arizona, may be pressing for what could develop into a major Justice Department criminal case against “Terrible Tommy” Metzger, as he likes to call himself. Court records filed in three states show the investigators strongly suspect Metzger provided the Arizona bomber with explosive-making instructions, knowing they would be used in the commission of a crime of violence. ( continue to full post… )

It now appears likely that confessed hate killer David “Joey” Pedersen will next face federal charges in connection with a West Coast killing spree that left his father, stepmother and two strangers dead.

The 31-year-old Pedersen, whose body is decorated with white supremacy tattoos,  was sentenced late last week in Everett, Wash., to life in prison after pleading guilty four days earlier to two counts of aggravated first-degree murder for the slayings of his father and stepmother.

Mark Roe, the prosecutor in Snohomish County, said he decided not to pursue the death penalty in Washington state because there was “significant and credible” evidence that Pedersen had been sexually abused as a child by his father. Against that backdrop, the prosecutor said it would be unlikely any jury would return a death penalty against Pedersen for killing his father. ( continue to full post… )

A white supremacist pleaded guilty today to killing his father and stepmother last fall before embarking on what an Oregon sheriff called a “vicious, wild reign of terror” that ended after two more people were killed.

The guilty pleas from 31-year-old David “Joey” Pedersen came in Everett, Wash., after Snohomish County Prosecutor Mark Roe said he wouldn’t seek the death penalty because there was “significant and credible” evidence that Pedersen had been sexually abused as a child by his father.

Pedersen is expected to be sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole, The Everett Herald reported. ( continue to full post… )

Notorious white supremacist Dennis Mahon faces up to 40 years in prison after being convicted in Phoenix on charges related to mailing a pipe bomb to a diversity officer who is African-American.

Mahon, 61, was convicted Friday of conspiracy to damage buildings and property with explosives; malicious damage of a building by means of explosives; and distribution of information related to explosives. His twin brother, Daniel Mahon, was acquitted on a single federal charge of conspiracy to damage buildings and property.

The mostly white jury determined the bombing was not a hate crime. ( continue to full post… )

Kevin DeAnna has stepped down as president of Youth for Western Civilization, the ultraconservative student group he founded in 2006 and has run ever since.

“Comrades, I’m extremely proud of everything YWC has accomplished over the last few years,” the 28-year-old wrote in a letter posted on the group’s website Feb. 17. But, “for various personal (namely, I’m old) and professional reasons, I will no longer be in charge of YWC. For those of you who know me, I’ll still be working in the conservative movement but I’ll be doing different things and won’t be associated with what YWC will be doing after this.”

Those “different things” appear to already be happening. Recently, DeAnna changed his Twitter profile to describe himself as “marketing coordinator” for WorldNetDaily (WND), a far-right online publication best known for its anti-Obama “birther” propaganda. Apparently, he’ll also be serving as a reporter: His first item, a fawning interview with white nationalist pundit Pat Buchanan, appeared Sunday on WND. ( continue to full post… )

White supremacist twins Dennis and Daniel Mahon went on trial today in Phoenix, charged with mailing a package bomb in 2004 that exploded and injured a black man who was a city official in Scottsdale.

The 61-year-old longtime racists were arrested in 2009 after a five-year undercover investigation involving an attractive female informant who put a Confederate flag in her window and ultimately befriended the Mahons.

The informant for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives also gave two sexually provocative pictures to the Mahons in a successful attempt to win their trust and attention. In one of the pictures, the ATF informant wore a white bikini top with a grenade hanging between her breasts as she posed in front of a Nazi swastika.

As the friendship flourished, the woman’s conversations with the Mahons were secretly recorded, providing federal investigators with a possible road map to unsolved bombings, court records disclose.  ( continue to full post… )